One of the purposes of the Jimma university ICT Development Office is providing user support. The office has recently implemented an open source helpdesk management system, named OTRS, to facilitate the support provision to users. The system allows users to send emails or make phone calls to ICT Helpdesk unit and track the progress of their queries. All collage have their own ICT user support staffs categorized as, Network, Software and Hardware maintenance technicians.

• Collage of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine team
• Collage of Business and Economics team
• Collage of Natural Science team
• Collage of Social Science and Law team
• Collage of Engineering and Technology  team
• Collage of Public Health and Medical Science team
• Central ICT User Support team

1. Senior Technicians
   

Senior Technicians are responsible for user support activities. Their task mainly involves coordinating and mobilizing human resource of the office to attend to end-user needs and network expansion activities. They also coordinate maintenance of electronic devices (such as computers, printers, scanners and photocopiers). Duties and responsibilities of the technicians include:

• Coordinate user support activities
• Receives escalated work orders from junior  technicians
• Provide on-site support to end users if required
• Coordinate network installation activities
• Request material resources required for end-user support
• Provide individual training and support on request
• Load all required software
• Perform other duties assigned by their supervisor

2. Junior User Support Technicians

These are technicians that actually deal with end users. Depending on requirements of the office these technicians could be put as Help Desk technicians to provide help to end users remotely or as Field Technicians to provide on-site support. These technicians may also involve in network installations. Their duties and responsibilities include:

• Communicate respectfully with the customer
• Receive user requests and take the necessary measures
• Resolving incidents as first line support  and advice to users
• Troubleshoot problems and takes appropriate measures
• Forward unattended problems to the responsible body
• Performs Network Installations
• Performs tasks assigned by their supervisors

3. Hardware, Software and Network Maintenance Technicians

The hardware  technicians are responsible for maintenance of every electronic device including computers, printers, scanners, photocopiers and faxing machines . The software  and Network technicians are responsible for maintenance of any operating system ,applications and network problems .

Their duties and responsibilities include:

• Receive user requests for hardware, software and network maintenance
• Provide on-site maintenance support to end users if required
• Forward unattended problems to the responsible body (system/network administrators)
• Provide orientation to new users of existing technology
• Train staff about potential uses of existing technology
• Make recommendation about purchase of ICT resources /electronic device specification
• Perform preventive maintenance for all electronic devices/university ICT resources
• Perform other tasks assigned to them by their supervisor